Ryan Scott
February 17th, 2012, 11:07 AM
This was the final book Vonnegut wrote before his death (there are, at last count, three posthumous volumes of unpublished work). IT is a non-fiction collection that sort of revolves around his increasing depression at the state of the US. He saw his understanding of American ideals being crushed in the Bush era, particularly with the Iraq war. Partly colored by the honor he felt as a veteran of WWII, he saw the US become a bully of the course of his life, which really led a tern from optimism to pessimism.
Much of the prose in this book is reworked from the autobiographical elements of his last novel - Timequake. So if you've read that work, this one is quite redundant. His wit is still alive, but there's less pop when he is so clearly depressed by the world around him.
Much of the prose in this book is reworked from the autobiographical elements of his last novel - Timequake. So if you've read that work, this one is quite redundant. His wit is still alive, but there's less pop when he is so clearly depressed by the world around him.